Obviously we don't have a complete story but I would also agree here, the teak on an Island Packet is one of the selling features, a thing of beauty and part of the charm of the brand. I could understand removing it if it was damaged, although I would probably call the factory and try and get a replacement. I spent two seasons bringing all the teak back on our boat and although it isn't factory new it adds so much to the look it was well worth the effort. Now it's a matter of doing a maintenance coat annually.

Funny thing, I always seem to have an opposing viewpoint to some IP owners. Here, on this one, I would not see any downside to removing the teak eyebrow. Matter of Fact, when I had our IP35 in the factory for a refit in 2013, I considered having the factory replace mine with their plastic one they use on the SP cruiser. They can sell you the plastic half round molding that can then be put in place of the teak.

I do maintain our teak with 5-7 coats of Epifanes varnish and it is not that bad to take care of IF you keep up with it. I will say, the eyebrow teak is the piece I curse the most. So, I can feel your pain and I understand your desire to remove it and replace it with plastic. Again, I see no downside. I will say, the boat does need something there, either a tape stripe or plastic or teak. Without it, I think it would look very odd.

Thank you all for your insight. Hayden, good suggestion, will call IP about the plastic replacement. My issue is the tedious maintainance of the eyebrow. I use Honey Teak. This will be the third time to redo, once four years ago when I purchased, two years ago, and now the refinishing needs to be touched up, not completely redone.
Park

Ah yes, that eyebrow! What a pain, but after the initial 8 coats of Epifanes, it really is easy to tape, lightly sand, and put one coat on. Actually, another IP owner told me about a round brush that Epifanes makes, that works really well. He doesn't even tape before varnishing. However, I always tape before that light sanding. The key to whole process it to stay on top of it. Re-doing the entire thing by stripping, sanding, taping a couple of times, and varnishing is very time consuming. I really love the look of varnished teak, so I can't really recommend taking the teak off. But, Hayden's idea of plastic might be a good one. But I sure would have to look long and hard at it before I removed the original teak.

This fall, we are going to re-do the rub rails and cap rails. We have to take off the stainless part on the rub rails and clean all the old Cytol off of it. I'm not sure if we will get around the entire boat this fall, but we will peck away at it and do as much as we can (tolerate).

Once upon a time, long, long ago, we restored an old house (built in 1917). It was a challenge, but our (only) 20 year old IP is as much or more of a challenge.

One of the old timers at our club came over to chat as I was working on another coat of Cetol on our boat. I was taping everything off and he said that he no longer tapes off the teak on his boat but instead purchases an inexpensive set of plastic putty knives at the box store. The putty knives are 1" to 4" wide and he uses them as a moving brush guard instead of the blue tape. You slide the putty knife along the teak where it touches the gelcoat as you varnish. I tried it this past spring and it works like a champ, saved me hours and hours of taping. The smaller putty knife can be used where the radius of that pesky eyebrow gets tight.

When you had the stainless steel off the edge of the Teak Cap Rail did you happen to take any photographs of what the teak looked like? If so, if you could share those I would greatly appreciate that. I'm interested in how the teak wood strip underneath the edge of the Cap Rail looks. Mine has a small gap in some areas back near the latter 1/4 of the hull.